The Bushfires Royal Commission has heard a St Andrews man died beside his swimming pool on Black Saturday.

The inquiry is examining the 119 deaths caused by the Kilmore fire.

The body of 57-year-old Graeme Savage was found beside his above ground swimming pool, where he is thought to have been overcome by smoke, perhaps while working on a pump.

His wife, Elizabeth Savage-Kooroonya was away on February 7th, but told the commission in a statement, that the couple had studied the recommendations from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires and built their mud brick house accordingly.

After a visit from the local CFA, they had been told the house was "definitely defendable."

The inquiry heard the Savages had previously discussed building a bunker, but because of inconclusive evidence, had not gone ahead with the plan.

Ms Savage-Kooroonya said she had heard it reported that the "CFA does not give advice."

But she impressed on the commissioners that people like her and her husband had been repeatedly advised, at policy and local levels, that their house would protect them.

She said they had made decisions based on that advice.

At no stage, she said, was it ever mentioned that they might be putting their lives at risk.

She also said she was "horrified and distressed" at the "disproportionate witchhunt" towards the former chief commissioner of police, Christine Nixon, who she said had worked tirelessly with survivors.

Plea for change

The widow of another man killed at St Andrews has urged the commission to change the system that led to people going without adequate fire warnings.

When 56-year-old Marcel Smits last spoke to his family on the phone at about 6:20pm (AEDT) on the evening of Black Saturday, he sounded frantic and said he was sheltering inside a shed near the house with a pillowcase over his head to ward off toxic fumes.

In a statement, his wife Carol Webb said her husband would have been listening to ABC radio as he drove home and would have heard warnings if they had been given.

Carol Webb noted the CFA had prepared, but not issued warnings, around that time and had warned power companies their lines were under threat.

She implored the commissioners to do what they could to change the systems responsible.